Rep. Mia Love's campaign admits to improperly raising primary election funds

Source: CNN





Updated 3:20 PM ET, Mon September 10, 2018


U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 3, 2016 in National Harbor, Maryland. The American Conservative Union hosted its annual Conservative Political Action Conference to discuss conservative issues.


(CNN)Rep. Mia Love's campaign has informed the Federal Election Commission that it will refund or redesignate less than half of what the government says was more than a million dollars improperly raised for a primary that was never expected to happen, according to documents reviewed by CNN.


The commission sent Love a letter in August saying the Utah Republican's campaign had violated federal guidelines about money for primaries. In Utah, candidates are not allowed to raise such funds if they have no primary, according to the FEC and experts specializing in election law. On Friday, Love's campaign responded to regulators, telling the FEC they would refund or redesignate some, but not all, of that money.

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But Love raised $1,153,624 and designated that money for a primary, according to the letter from the FEC to Love. Even after Love secured the nomination at the convention, she raised an additional $372,468 specifically designated for the primary that her campaign knew would not take place.........................................


It is unclear if the FEC will accept Love's rationale for keeping the pre-convention donations or will say all the money will have to be refunded or redesignated. Working in Love's favor is that there are currently two vacant seats on the six-seat commission, so any decision would have to be unanimous.

"They are probably betting that there's no way there are four votes on the FEC to come after them for this, that's part of what's in the background here," Ryan said. "So I think they're really pushing the boundaries of the law in order to game the contribution limits predicting that they will get away with it, and it's like we have correct protection, but just because you can get away with something doesn't make it right.".................................

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/politics/mia-love-campaign-funds/index.html

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